The Romance of a Pro-Consul Part 10

The chief who had many oxen must slaughter them, and throw the bodies to the wild beasts. The clansman who had a little store of corn must straight way destroy it. Even the kraals, which gave shelter from the elements, were to be burned down, as if an enemy were being pillaged.

Otherwise the new heaven would not appear; while the starry heaven above, would fall and destroy the disobedient.

'When I heard of the movement,' Sir George Grey narrated, 'I at once hurried north to grapple with it. I could not have believed it so serious, until I was actually on the spot. Kaffraria was in a ferment, and a wave of destruction might roll from it across Cape Colony. Here were nearly a quarter of a million of Kaffirs, a large proportion of whom were busy acting upon the advice of the prophetess. They were destroying their cattle and produce, and looking forward eagerly to a triumph over the whites.

'I went among the chiefs, although warned that I endangered myself unduly, hoping to check the movement. However, it was useless to talk to natives aflame with superst.i.tion and pa.s.sion. Those who doubted the prophetess, would do nothing to keep within bounds the majority who accepted her as a divinity. Yet, the chiefs invariably received me with kindness, and thanked me for the counsel I gave them. Simply, they could not accept it.'

The Governor adopted every means to place the borders of Cape Colony in a state of military security. As one detail he had to ensure that, in the event of war, the frontier settlers should not be ma.s.sacred. A line of men was drawn across country, so as to make a b.u.t.tress against any advance by the crazy Kaffirs. Each picket had charge of a stretch of ground, and in the morning soldiers would ride sharply to right and left, covering it. They could tell, by footmarks on the dewy gra.s.s, whether any Kaffirs had been about in the night. The chief military officer was for falling back upon a less extended position, where he believed he could be more secure. He sought the Governor's authority for the step, which fact well indicates the critical nature of the whole situation. Sir George scribbled an emphatic 'No,' and resumed the scanty sleep from which he had been aroused.

'I had several reasons,' he explained, 'for declining to permit of any change of our military position. First, it would have been an encouragement to the Kaffirs to attack us, for they would have supposed us in retreat. Second, we should have been leaving open, country where there were European families. Again, the appearance of weakening, on our part, would have driven over the Kaffirs who hesitated, to the side of those who clamoured to attack us. I made it a rule always, and in all things, only to take a step after the most careful and mature thought; but once it had been taken, never to go back upon it. It's a very bad business when you begin to retreat.'

Nothing happened in the manner Nongkause and the wily Umhlakaza had foretold, unless the destruction of Kaffir stock and grain. Two blood-red suns did not flame in the east; neither did the moon, in any of her humours, light the ancient chiefs along, the now precious cattle with them. A mist came up of an afternoon, but no day of darkness followed.

Breezes blew, cheering the hot air to freshness; never a hurricane which should break the lintels of the white man's doors. It was weary to wait and starve, with a Governor on the flank, plucking all guidance out of an insurrection.

If the G.o.ds of Nongkause had excited a less perfect trust, there might have been a rush on Cape Colony. As it was, the belief lived long enough in the Kaffirs to defeat its own purpose. Their suffering grew acute, nature a.s.serted itself over superst.i.tion, and their one cry was 'Give us to eat.' They dug up roots, and they strove for the supplies which the Governor threw into the country, when famine drove Nongkause's nostrum out. Desperate crowds of the hungry surged over hill and plain, while strength lasted, and then lay down to die. No question remained of keeping a mad Kaffraria at bay. The whole effort was to rescue, as far as was possible, the Kaffirs from death by want.

Civilisation drove forward in a mortuary cart; but it was civilisation.

The spirit of Kaffraria had been quenched; it was a last wild stand. Sir George Grey meditated on the means, so unexpected, so beyond man's control, which had enhanced the securities for peace in South Africa. He could do that, believing Providence to be an all-wise, if often inscrutable ruler, and at the same time declare: 'There was a heroic element in the action of the Kaffirs, for we see what they were willing to endure at the bidding, as they believed, of their ancestors, and in the interests of themselves as a people.'

It was in Sir George's mind that Nongkause, by a queer irony, was the one member of her family who survived the visitation.

XIV A SAVIOUR OF INDIA

It touches the imagination to have a dark Africa put forward as light for a Bible scene; namely, that where Jacob, instructed by Rebekah, obtains the blessing which the blind Isaac thinks himself to be conferring on his eldest son Esau.

'This scene,' said Sir George Grey, 'did not live wholly to me, until I met with an incident while hunting in South Africa. Coming upon a young spring-buck, which had been exhausted by the pursuit, I lifted it into the saddle before me, and carried it home. All the way, the velvety skin of the little fellow was brus.h.i.+ng against my clothes.

'These were not worn again for some time, and when I did take them out, I was struck by their delicious smell of herbs and gra.s.ses. The scent had been communicated by the spring-buck, accustomed to make its home among the sweet growths of nature. It was the hunter's fragrant smell which, in part, caused Isaac to mistake Jacob for Esau.'

While trekking through Cape Colony, to see everybody and everything for himself, Sir George was often able to be the keen sportsman. Before his camp was awake, of a morning, he would make a bowl of black coffee, shoulder his rifle, and start off, with a couple of bush-boys for gillies. He would return in the forenoon, deal with his work as Pro- Consul until the evening, and then, perhaps, seek another shot. Or, if his people were on the move, he might sally from them at one point, and rejoin them later. Deer of various sorts were not scarce, and he kept the camp larder furnished with fresh meat. The Mahomedans, among his motley following, ate with relish the product of his rifle.

'They trusted me,' he dwelt on that, 'to say "In the name of the Lord,"

when a beast was killed, so observing the Mahomedan rite. They would not have eaten of its flesh, had they not known that their belief was expressed, "You are not to destroy one of the Creator's creatures, except by His permission." Whenever Mahomedans were with me, I undertook to observe the rule, nor did I ever fail.'

One. sees, in that fact of chance mention, another evidence of how Sir George came to be such a force among the raw men of the earth. He had the genius for taking pains to understand them, and thus, even unwittingly, made them his disciples. Just, he touched the spot.

In his reign at the Cape, the lion was still rampant far south of the Zambesi. Twice, while hunting, he got on the trail of the monarch, but he never slew him. A leopard would skulk into the demesne of Table Mountain itself, and be ingloriously trapped. The lion made other sport, lying on a high place while it was day, and going forth to roam at dark. Sir George went to the Bible for the character sketch of the lion, in particular to the Psalms:

Thou makest darkness, and it is night; Wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.

The young lions roar after their prey, And seek their meat from G.o.d: The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, And lay them down in their dens.

There was a hill, with a wide outlook of plain, and from it, the lesser wild animals at feed, might be marked for the gloaming. It was covert wherein the lion could abide, to lie in wait, a secret lurking-place. Up the back of this hill climbed Sir George, eye and ear on the alert, for one suspected to be about. He was about, but already bounding down the rocky face of the ridge, in a hurry to be clear of the hunter. Sir George mounted his horse, eager to cut him off, and rode, break-neck, the path he had already climbed. There the lion galloped, at a kingly swing, heading for the thick bush in the distance. As he neared it, Sir George aimed a forlorn shot, which proved a farewell salute. He dismounted, and waded through the growth, to the concern of his Kaffir boy, but the lion was tracked no more.

These excursions of a leisure hour sent Sir George fresh, vigorous, full of resource to the alarums that arraigned him in South Africa. The greatest of them was not South African, but blew across the Indian Ocean.

On an August morning, a steamer drew wearily into Table Bay with a message for the Governor. It was an express from Lord Elphinstone at Bombay, red-bordered, in that it told of the tremendous affair now calmly fixed in history as the Indian Mutiny. Here was an earnest cry, 'Come over and help us,' addressed to the potent British satrap nearest in the Seven Seas.

'Yes,' Sir George mentioned, 'the despatch was in no wise positive as to the outlook in India. Trouble there had been and would be; that was certain. But was India merely face to face with a disturbance which she could manage herself, or was it a widespread mutiny? I was really left to form my own view upon the situation, and I decided that things were very serious. Apparently, religious motives were at the bottom of the affair, and I could fancy how fanaticism, bred thereon, might sweep India. My responsibilities in South Africa were great, for the mad Kaffir movement had hardly been stayed; nay, my whole surroundings were as a thicket of thorns, in their possible complications. But India, which might be lost to us, outweighed everything else, and I felt it my duty to contribute a.s.sistance to the utmost limit of my resources.'

He would s.h.i.+p troops, guns, munitions, specie, everything South Africa could give, off to India. While he was doing it, a more splendid thing happened--his masterful laying hands upon the troop-s.h.i.+ps pa.s.sing the Cape for China, and his sending of them to India instead. 'I have;' he recorded the act at the time, 'directed that all vessels arriving here with troops for China, shall proceed direct to Calcutta instead of to Singapore.' They are laconic words, but their place is over the front door of the British Empire. To it they brought a service, not ordinary in its annals, as they marked a man willing to put all to the touch. A nation and a personality are in the incident, and, remembering that, let us trace it out.

At this date we had a variance with China, and were undertaking warlike operations in that country, jointly with France. Troops from England were hurrying to Lord Elgin, who was seeing our affairs through in China. Some of the transports reached Cape Town, a few days after Sir George Grey received the Elphinstone message. They needed water and fresh provisions, and receiving these would have gone on with all haste to China. It was a throbbing moment for a Cape Governor, accustomed to think in the British Empire. What should he do?

You can fancy him working out his course, like a master mariner taking the stars. Nor, must the process occupy longer. He was rapidly despatching the forces which were at his command in South Africa. This might prove rash, having regard to the state of the country. Events might confuse him, and be his downfall. Still, he was not going beyond the bounds of his commission, and there were the specious reasons why South Africa should fly to the aid of India.

He set them out then, and their reperusal, in the armchair of his London retirement, but emphasised their purport. As a great empire, set hither and thither, could only be governed by the free consent of all concerned, so it must be a unit when danger threatened any part. Here was the British Empire, a vast area, scattered over the globe. It was essential that everybody should see it had not overgrown its strength. Be manifest that its vitality, its power of action, were as keen at the extremities as at the centre. Should a portion be gravely endangered, the world must behold all the other sections stirring themselves to meet the emergency.

Each should be a leader for the whole body, the supreme weight of which would thus be focussed upon the menaced quarter. In the process, our varied peoples would determine their common interests and a common pride of dominion, incalculable in worth.

Within this singleness of the Empire, came Colonel Adrian Hope and his gallant 93rd Highlanders, then at Cape Town on their way to China. Only, Sir George Grey's commission, as Cape Governor, gave him no authority to divert from its mission, an over-sea military expedition. He would be stepping outside his own realm with a vengeance, because he would be superseding the orders of the British Government. The contemplation of such a step was staggering. But would it be wisdom? That decided, it should go through, for Sir George did not bind himself by forms or consequences. Never being an official, than which no truer word could be writ, he was wont to give ready hostage to his official fortunes. India was to top all.

The meagre information from there, left him, as has been seen, to act very much on possibilities. These, however, were dark and storm-laden; he felt that England was confronted by her whole destiny in India. On the other hand, the operations in China were the result of a compact with France. To deflect troops elsewhere, might be a serious breach of that compact. It was so easy not to do anything; Sir George resolved to do everything.

'I informed Adrian Hope,' he described the result, 'of the apparent state of affairs in India, and of the course which seemed to me necessary. This was that he must proceed direct from Cape Town to Calcutta, instead of following his existing orders. Should there be no need for him at Calcutta, he could continue his voyage to Singapore, with a loss of time not material. Quite naturally, he was doubtful as to what he ought to do.

He was under orders for a theatre of war, and was responsible to his superiors in London.

'I undertook the full authority for the change which I urged, and I remarked that unless he accepted my direction, it would most likely be refused by other officers arriving at Cape Town. He agreed to do as I wished, on condition that I put my commands in writing, and this I did at once. The n.o.ble fellow arrived in India in the nick of time, as did the forces which had previously left South Africa. Sir Colin Campbell was enabled, being so strengthened, to complete his expedition for the relief of Lucknow.

'I caused a steamer to cruise out from Cape Town, to intercept other troops.h.i.+ps and send them on to China. While I was thus steadily forwarding relief to India, I learned that Canning, the Governor-General, was still hopeful of avoiding grave trouble. At that I was anxious lest, after all, I had misjudged the situation and the demands upon myself to meet it. Next, I had full tidings from India, and I knew that my efforts, twice over, would have been useful. India was in the balance.'

Sir George had to keep the peace in turbulent Kaffraria with a mere remnant of soldiers. The colonists, anxious to a.s.sist the relief of India, took sentry-go at Cape Town in place of the regulars. It was all a knitting of the Empire; the uniting of its strands by blood and bone and sentiment; that federation, based on race and the human qualities, which had budded and bloomed in Sir George Grey's mind.

'For instance,' he wrote from Cape Town, 'there is not one of the gentlemen in this part of the country who will now, in his turn, abandon his bed, to sleep for the night in the guard-house, and to walk his beat as sentry, who will not think that he has made some sacrifice for Her Majesty's honour and for the safety of even a distant part of the Empire, and who will not henceforth regard any persons that a.s.sail the interests of the Queen, or her possessions, very much in the light of personal antagonists. In fact, all here now feel that they are useful members of a great body corporate, in which they have their personal interest, which arises from having made some sacrifices to promote the common good of the whole. Such a feeling, pervading the Empire, must immeasurably increase its strength, unity, and stability.'

Sir George sent his own carriage horses to India, there to be yoked to smoking guns, and went afoot in Cape Town. The maintenance of peace, among the pugnacious chiefs of South Africa, depended mainly upon his personal influence with them. He borrowed horses and rode round among those chiefs, binding them over, in their only recognisances, as honourable men, not to disturb the country. It was a strange Pax Britannica; an affair of novel, almost quixotic, elements. But it went through royally.

'You know,' one fancies Sir George delivering himself during his circuit of the kraals, 'the Queen, for whom I speak, has to quell a rising which threatens all that is good in one of her other possessions. Those who fight against her are of exceeding number, while her forces there are comparatively few. Now, you are all warriors of experience who, if there must be fighting, would like to see a fair contest. In England the Queen has many soldiers, but England is as far again from India as we are.

Thus, I can send troops from here in less time, and I am doing so, relying upon you, as gentlemen, to see that the peace is kept while they are away. With you, therefore, I leave that trust, mindful that we are all subjects of a Queen who loves those who serve her loyally, but who, when justly angered, can strike heavily.'

The velvet glove, fastening with the steel b.u.t.ton, was gladly taken up by the chiefs, nor did they betray the Governor's confidence. His invasion of Moshesh, in this relation, was quite an exploit, for the old fellow was stern and wily. Sir George had brought about the cease fire, in a quarrel between the Basutos and the Boers. That gave him the prestige which was requisite for anyone who would go to Thaba Bosigo. Having a Boer for guide, and a few natives for retinue, the Governor presented himself at the outer postern of the stronghold, after darkness had fallen.

'I was admitted,' he said, 'and found Moshesh ill in bed, a bright nightcap, with a ta.s.sel, on his head. A more strange, more picturesque conference, bearing upon the well-being of the British Empire, surely never took place. Moshesh was propped up in his bed, his leading men grouped themselves round, and we talked. A fire burned in the place, a tallow candle or two spluttered, making lights and shadows as in a Rembrandt picture. My natives understood Basuto and English, and were the medium for my converse with Moshesh. He was really one of the cleverest fellows in all South Africa, as well as one of the most powerful chiefs.

Thus, I was pleased with myself when I left Thaba Bosigo, no longer a Mountain of Midnight, knowing that he was in my league of peace.'

This novel covenant was strictly observed by the chiefs, so a.s.suring the Governor against his neat venture. It hurled him, once more, through the fabric of the British const.i.tution, a road to which he had grown familiar. What should he do but raise two regiments on his own mandate, a usurpation of the sovereign rights. It occurred in this fas.h.i.+on. Bombay had not taken the distemper, rife in such a large area of India. However, Lord Elphinstone learned that a Bombay rising had been arranged for a certain religious festival. He had not forces enough left him to overawe the populace, or, failing that, to cope with an outbreak. He despatched another express to Sir George Grey, at the Cape, to the effect: 'I know you have already denuded South Africa of troops, but I am hoping you may somehow manage to help us against this Bombay crisis.'

Sir George bethought himself of the men, formerly composing the German Legion, who were settled in the Colony. He collected these with what other recruits he could entice, formed them into regiments, and sent them to Bombay. 'I signed the commissions for the officers,' he recalled, 'but I'm afraid my signature would have meant nothing, after the s.h.i.+ps were on the high sea. In the event of the men creating a disturbance, the officers would really have had no legal authority to quell it.' He communicated with the East India Company, desiring that the regiments should be put on a regular footing immediately they reached Bombay.

'For raising the regiments,' Sir George continued, 'I was charged at home with a breach of the const.i.tution. It was all that. I got word that I should learn by a later mail what was to be the upshot. A friendly member of the Government wrote me a note beginning: "Dear Grey, you have done for yourself at last; I always feared it would come to this." My own position was very plain. Here was an unconst.i.tutional thing, but a necessary thing.

'Meanwhile I had news from Bombay, that it was the provident arrival of the Germans which, most likely, prevented the outbreak that had been feared. I put the despatch in my pocket, with the reflection: "Ah, they can now interfere with me from London if they will!" There, I judged, they had similar information from Bombay, for I heard nothing farther as to what was to be done with me.

'When the first tidings of the trouble in India reached me, I laid it down that all previous orders and directions from England were cancelled.

These had been given before the new position arose, and were, in my judgment, over-borne by the new perils.

'As for myself, in a personal way, I felt that I should not feel it a disgrace to be recalled for doing what I regarded as my duty. I had not very much, but, at the worst, I had enough to live upon.'

Without a masterful Pro-Consul at the Cape, Lucknow might have fallen, before there were forces to relieve it. That would have lit, for our rule in India, a bonfire in which Bombay would only have been a crackling twig.